In September 1938, under the command of Su Yu, the 2 detachments of our New Fourth Army advanced behind the enemy and came to the vicinity of Wuhu in Anhui Province. At this time, Wuhu had fallen and became an important military center for the Japanese puppet army. Soon after arriving here, the 2 detachments actively carried out attacks and raids against the Japanese puppet army, making the ghosts in Wuhu panic for a long time.
▲On December 10, 1937, Wuhu, Anhui Province, fell
The Japanese tried to adopt a tactic known as the "plum blossom pile" against our New Fourth Army. "Plum blossom pile" refers to bunkers and turrets. The Japanese army planned to build a blockade line on the basis of a dense transportation network, first trapping our army in one grid after another, and then establishing various strongholds in the grid, that is, "plum blossom piles", so as to compress the scope of our army's activities and finally achieve the goal of annihilating our army. After more than a year, this set of Japanese tactics will be upgraded to the so-called "cage" tactics, that is, with railways as pillars, highways as chains, bunkers and strongholds as locks, and this upgraded version of this tactic was used by Tada Jun, commander of the North China Dispatch Army of the Japanese army invading China, to tightly control and blockade North China.
▲ The "plum blossom pile" of the Japanese army, that is, a variety of large and small strongholds and bunkers
In order to break the Japanese blockade and siege of our army, Su Yu decided to choose guanqiao gate as a target to launch a surprise attack, this decision can be called "tiger's mouth pulling teeth", guanqiao gate is in the center of the Japanese blockade line, once attacked, within half an hour, reinforcements from various nearby strongholds can rush to guanqiao gate; and here is only a few kilometers away from the airport, the plane can fly over the guanqiao gate in less than 2 minutes, strafing and bombing our army; and the guanqiao gate is within the range of the artillery of the Japanese troops stationed in Wuhu, as long as it receives a call for help Artillery can then provide fire support.
▲ The Japanese artillery unit in Wuhu, the maximum range of the Type 38 field artillery in the picture is as high as 10 kilometers, while the Guanqiao Gate is only 5 kilometers away from the northeastern suburbs of Wuhu
However, in Su Yu's view, the combination of these unfavorable factors just shows that the enemy has no fear, the vigilance cannot be too high, and our army can attack him unprepared and win a surprise victory. On the morning of January 18, 1939, under the condition of high secrecy, Su Yuqin led the 3rd Regiment of 2 detachments to brave the rain and snow to attack the Guanqiao gate stronghold. Along the way, the troops marched in covertly, stayed in one place, and were not allowed to go out except for a few guards. In order to confuse the enemy's intelligence network, Su Yu never informed the target of the attack, but only constantly changed the marching route, twisting and turning, circling around, and the whole army was already confused.
▲ The new fourth army unit that forcibly marched in the snow
It was not until after dinner on January 20 that, in a hidden place, Su Yu summoned the whole army to speak and officially announced the decision to attack the official steep gate. At 5 p.m. on the same day, the 3rd Regiment marched towards the official steep gate. The departure point is still more than 70 miles away from the official steep gate, and if you go further, it is difficult to keep secrets, so the troops must arrive overnight.
▲ The river encountered by the New Fourth Army on the march was crossed by the boats of the masses
The troops then immediately rushed to their destination with forced marches, and encountered 2 rivers on the way, but due to adequate preparations, they all passed smoothly, and at 4:00 a.m. on the 21st, the 3rd Regiment approached the official steep gate. The main force of the 3rd Regiment marched north on the embankment on the west bank of the Bian Dan River to meet the enemy, and the other one advanced north along the east bank to cooperate with the operation. And the main force of the West Bank first launched a surprise attack, quickly breaking through the barrier and breaking through the street. Subsequently, xiaomuqiao was captured, rushed across the east side of the river, and with the cooperation of the troops on the east bank, captured the puppet army headquarters, and only the commander of the puppet army was lucky to slip through the net because he did not return at Wuhu. The remnants of the puppet army fled in the darkness of the night. The battle took only 8 minutes from the beginning of the attack to the end of the battle, and it took only 20 minutes to clear the battlefield. By the time Japanese reinforcements and planes arrived, the 3rd Regiment had already withdrawn from the official gate.
▲The Japanese army is firing at our army across the river
In this battle, more than 200 puppet troops were annihilated and 57 prisoners were taken. Only 1 hygienist and 1 trumpeter were wounded in our army. In addition, 4 machine guns, more than 70 long and short guns, grenades, and a batch of bullets were captured, and the plan of the Ding Ri puppet army to divide and blockade Wuhu and Dangtu was foiled.